The State of Recycling in Chicago

 

Some things changed since I wrote state officials agreed Illinois was not doing enough to recycle in 2007. I've followed recycling efforts, as a writer and resident, so I went to a recent Recycling Talk to find out the current state of recycling in Chicago.

First - and FINALLY - all Chicago area homes have Blue Carts since fall of 2013, or approximately 600,000 households. Getting carts to all those homeowners took seven years after the initial test pilot program in the Beverly neighborhood in 2005. 

Chris Sauve, Program Director for Recycling for the City of Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation, kicked off the discussion, hosted by the 47th Ward (Ald. Pawar) last week at Sulzer Library, with basic Blue Cart statistics. He said recyclables in blue carts are picked up every other week throughout the city with service in 6 zones, each zone handled by the City's Streets and Sanitation Department OR a private hauler (depends on the zone).

The program is a unique partnership between city government and private trash haulers, he said, and "managed competition" helps keep prices down. It's better, meaning cheaper, Sauve said, for taxpayers to recycle items rather than putting them in a landfill.

Chicago's current cost to recycle is about $19.9 million with the partner arrangement between the city and private haulers.The city services 2 zones, Waste Management services 3 zones and Sims Recycling services 1 zone for a total of about 120,000 tons of recyclables currently. That compares to an annual cost of $31.7 million when the city handled it alone. That's better. 

Not Great: Only 14% recycle rate

But it's Not Great: Chicago's recycling rate is just 14%, for the 1st months of 2014, and Sauve said that rate is "not great." Each month, they calculate how much material is diverted from landfills and the city reports recycling results on its website. 

Now that there are carts in all homes, the Streets and Sanitation Department can start working to promote and educate residents on the program, to increase the amount of materials recycled. A 20 to 25% rate is a decent baseline, Sauve said. 

"Getting carts out was our first challenge," said Chris Sauve. "But training people to use them properly is an even bigger challenge going forward - and we have a long way to go."

Chicago uses "Single-Stream Recycling," which means all types of materials are combined in the blue recycling carts and later separated at sorting facilities. Contamination does occur, particularly affecting paper items, but single-stream saves space with fewer bins, is easier so people don't have to sort materials and thus more people participate, and collection costs are lower, as there are fewer bins and trucks required.

 Keep it LOOSE! Don't use bags. It's easier to process and pull out recyclables at the facilities, which is done both by machine AND by hand. A quick rinse of bottles and jars helps reduce contamination. If materials are very soiled, with grease or paint, put them in the trash rather than contaminating all the recyclables. 

Yard waste bag

What goes in blue carts? YES: cans, glass jars and bottles, paper food containers, envelopes, magazines, cardboard and plastic bottles #1-5 and #7. NO: Food waste, styrofoam or plastic bags* (which will likely be outlawed in Chicago soon). Also: No electronics!! (More on that later). For a full list of what's accepted in blue carts (and not), go to the city's site HERE. 

For more details, go to: www.chicagorecycles.org 

One of my questions as a gardener was about yard waste. I've already filled a dozen brown yard waste bags and set them at the curb on trash day. I was discouraged to see the regular trash truck haul them away in April. I suspect it was NOT being composted, so I asked Chris Sauve about it at the meeting.

Yard waste is currently being picked up with the regular trash service (and not being composted), he said, while the city gets a plan and funding in place. He encouraged residents to keep bagging their yard waste, as the city should have things up and running soon. for this seasonal program, that runs from April until October or November.

The city's site on yard waste was just updated with the following on yard waste:

If you are in a Blue Cart service area then Yard Waste will now be collected 
every other week by our Yard Waste Crews, pick-up will be on the same week as your blue cart collection.

Composting is something the city would like to tackle on a larger scale, Sauve said, but it won't be any time soon. One idea they've had is to repurpose extra black trash carts for yard waste - and this makes a lot of sense as people will need less space for trash as they recycle more.

At our house, we have 3 black trash carts and 2 blue recycle carts and we generally fill more blue carts than black ones. We don't use one black cart, so using it for yard waste is brilliant. Last night, I set out 3 bags of yard waste when it was 90 degrees and dry, only to wake up to the sound of heavy rain and see the bags getting soaked. Next time, I'll use the extra black cart and put some sort of sign for Yard Waste on it. 

The city encourages residents to compost at home and once helped make compost bins and rainbarrels, as well as native plants and trees, more affordable for residents, but those rebate programs are being phased out. Composting is a great way to keep material out of landfills, and using compost bins has decreased the amount of trash we throw out every year, for sure. It's too bad we don't get a discount on our trash service! 

So, hurray, Blue Carts are finally here!! Now, it's time to get out and put them to use, Chicago! With the city's current recycling rate at only 14%, we can certainly go up from there.